By Gilbert Akampa Kakurugu
KAMPALA
Today the National drug authority standards laboratory has confirmed that there are some dangerous chemicals in Pastor Kayanja’s Tickoff Acaricide that were banned.
Speaking to journalists, Mr. Abiaz Rwamwiri the public relations officer NDA said, that on 2nd January NDA learnt with concern the manufacture, distribution and use of Tick off a purported acaricide manufactured by CPM Wave that was first publicly promoted by the one Pastor Robert Kayanja at one of his Church services at his church in Rubaga during 2022 Christmas season.
Rwamwiri said pastor Kayanja is on record announcing that he together with his other accomplices had come up with an incredible organic product that kills ticks instantly. This provoked the NDA team to meet pastor Kayanja and his business partners (Marvin Mukasa and Clinton James an American) who owned up to the product and claimed to have a team from Makerere university scientists from the school of veterinary medicine who they said were the lead investigators.
The team from NDA went ahead to reach out to the said Makerere scientists who confessed not to have that they have never worked or reviewed any product from pastor Kayanja or any of his associates.
Rwamwiri confirmed to us that pastor Kayanja and his team declined to disclose the chemical properties or ingredients in their product but NDA working with police impounded over 100 samples from one of his church stores and took them to both NDA and government chemist laboratories.
NDA also confirmed that all the samples tested positive of contamination with dangerous and banned chemicals. These chemicals are Diazinon, a highly concentrated fumigant used to kill bedbugs, bats and termites.
One of the other dangerous chemicals was Fipronil, a spray banned for food producing animals because of the long withdrawal period it has due to the potential risks to humans.
Rwamwiri also said that Pastor later cut off communication with NDA after discovering that the deal had turned sour and instead chose to blackmail the authority. He said pastor Kayanja and his team used the advantage when the country is facing a problem of tick resistance.
NDA condemns this and other similar acts and calls upon farmers in the districts of Kruhura, Lyantonde, Isingiro, Sembabule, Gomba and parts of Karamoja where this product has been distributed to stop its use and handover any traces of this acaricide to the nearest police for easy collection. This is because the product, which has been distributed to these districts, is a dangerous acaricide, which has been banned by the government and is known to be harmful to human health and the environment. As such, NDA is urging farmers not use this product and to turn over any traces of it to the nearest police station.
